Select Committee on Foreign Affairs Written Evidence


Memorandum from the Association of Iranian Woman in the UK

  1.  I am writing to give the Committee some information about the on-going violation of human rights in Iran. In light of the facts set out in this letter, I respectfully request the opportunity to address the Committee in order to elaborate on these issues and also respond to any queries that the members may have.

  2.  Since last April when the fundamentalist regime of Iran escaped condemnation at the last UN General Assembly, the barbaric punishments such as stoning, gouging eyes, amputating limbs, flogging and even throwing people off from cliffs as a form of execution have continued in Iran.

  3.  According to regime's official press reports 26 have been stoned to death during Khatami' s presidency, 18 of them women. Article 104 of Islamic Punishment Act states that when carrying out stoning, "The stone should not be so big as to kill the offender with one or two stones. Nor should it be as small as pebbles." The state-run dailies in Iran reported on 9 October 2002 that a woman, identified as Nasrin, was hanged at dawn on 8 October in Tabriz prison. She was the second woman to be hanged in Tabriz within two weeks. State-run dailies had reported the execution of another woman in Tabriz on September 23. A woman by the name of Nosrat Abouii, who was stoned in Yazd prison, managed to escape while she was being stoned but she was arrested immediately by the suppressive agents of the regime and put in jail. On 25 September 2002, Goli Nik-Khou was stoned to death after serving her 15 years sentence in the town of Naqadeh, western Iran. On 17 October 2002, the Mullahs' regime announced that a woman prisoner identified as Zahra Nazari was hanged the day before in Tehran's Qasr Prison. On 8 March 2002, the regime's official press reported that a 30-year-old woman prisoner, mother of three children, died in jail a few days before being stoned to death in accordance with a sentence passed by a religious judge. At present another four women by the name of Sima, Ashraf, Ferdows and Shahnaz are currently languishing their stoning verdicts to be carried out. Some of their pictures have appeared in the media.

  4.  According to Mullahs' laws, which recognise gender apartheid even in punishments like stoning, women are buried up to their armpits for stoning, while men are buried up to their waist. The law provides that if the victims were to escape while the sentence was being carried out, he or she would be allowed to go free. Since, it is easier for man to escape; this discrimination is literally a matter of life and death for women.

  5.  After the Iranian Resistance managed to bring out a videotape of stoning of four victims in Iran and international outrage over this inhuman practice, which included calls for the abolishment of stoning in Iran, the Mullahs' regime tried to deceive the international community by falsely claiming to have called for a moratorium on stoning. The reality is that nothing has been done to abolish stoning in the so-called Islamic Punishment Act. This regime neither intends to nor has the capacity to stop stoning and none of the officials have called for the removal of this barbaric punishment. Instead, we have seen numerous reports in different state-run dailies, writing about the moratorium being only a rumour and that until it becomes law and confirmed by judicial authorities, it has no meaning. A pro-Khatami Majlis deputy Elahe Koulaii said: "This is a lie. No proposal to abolish stoning has been submitted to the Majlis." (State-run Khorasan daily, 17 December 2002).

  6.  ISNA, 28 December 2002, reported from Babak Razmsaz, religious judge at Justice Department and deputy head of Be'sat judicial branch as saying: "Since stoning is classified as a religious punishment and there is an aspect of God's authority, no changes can be introduced in this punishment. Therefore, in the light of views of the religious leaders and also the Islamic Punishment Act adopted in 1991 in accordance with the Shiite religious laws, the time and location can have no influence over the performance of religious laws and hence, this punishment cannot be changed."

  7.  ISNA, 28 December 2002, reported from Ayatollah Gholamreza Rezvani, a member of the Council of Guardians as saying: "Stoning cannot be replaced by any other form of punishment as Islamic decrees are not determined by the mode in society. These decrees may have been unpleasant for the people in the first days of Islam and in this respect no alternative punishment has been set for adultery."

  8.  Since Khatami came to power in 1997, he has never uttered the terms "human rights" or "defending human rights". As the chairman of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution, Khatami decided not to sign the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Khatami has neither been wiling nor capable of bring about any changes. In response to the objection raised by the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister, Khatami's chief advisor on women's affairs, Zahra Shojaee defended stoning by saying: "Stoning to death had been sanctioned to uphold the sanctity of the family and family values."

  9.  Since 1979, tens of thousands of women have been executed in Iran. Among those executed were tens of pregnant women. The worst kinds of tortures have been inflicted on women prisoners who oppose the regime. These include repeated sexual assaults and amputation of body parts. Women are attacked and flogged in public. In many cases women are flogged for improper veiling however these are not announced in the regime's media.

  10.  According to the misogynous rule of Mullahs, a 15-year-old girl is considered as an adult and is sentenced to all adult punishments including execution, torture, flogging and other brutal punishments. In the most recent case, a 15-year-old girl by the name of Razieh has been condemned to 50 lashes and a year and half in prison along with the payment of a three million Toomans fine. According to the article 1210 of the Civil Code, a girl of eight years and nine months of age is considered to be a fully-grown up, while a boy is only considered as an adult at a later age of 14 years and seven months.

  11.  Under the religious dictatorship of Mullahs, the Iranian people and especially women have been deprived of their very fundamental freedoms and human rights. Women are not allowed to leave home without the permission of their husbands, even if she wants to attend her father's funeral. Women cannot travel on their own without the permission of their husbands. Husbands can prevent their wives from working outside if they see the job an interference of the family interests. Husbands can divorce their wives whenever they wish and without presenting any reasons. Women are banned from teaching boys older than 10 years of age. A woman is the inferior sex, whose testimony is worth half the testimony of a man. Women inherit half of men. Women do not have the right to enter sport stadiums. In the football game between Iran and Ireland in Tehran on 15 November 2001, only Irish women were permitted to enter the stadium.

  12.  In education, 67% of the students deprived of education are girls between 11 and 16 years of age. The number of girl children who drop out of school is on the rise due to negative attitude towards women's education, early marriages, shortage of education space and educational facilities.

  13.  The suicide rate in Iran is one of the highest in the world. 75 per cent of the victims are women, 81% of whom are between 15 to 31 years of age. The average age of those attempting suicide is 25.

  14.  Only 9% of Iranian women are employed. 72 per cent of these women work in the educational sector. Only 600,000 of the country's 29.5 million women have jobs. The reason for nine out of every 10 women who are dragged into prostitution is poverty. The second most common reason is unemployment.

  15.  The above facts are indicative of a volatile situation in Iran. In light of the aforementioned facts we are writing to ask the Committee:

    —  To urgently publicise these information and to add them to the Committee's report on the situation of human rights in Iran.

    —  To ask the Parliament to adopt a resolution condemning the continuation and the deterioration of human rights.

    —  To ask Her Majesty's Government to submit a resolution against the Mullah's atrocities to the UN Human Rights Commission.

    —  Finally, we should be grateful if you would give us the opportunity to be present before the Committee and to provide the members with further information about the continuous violation of human rights in Iran.

  We thank you in advance and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Association of Iranian Women in the UK

3 March 2003



 
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